Issue 4, 2025

A highly efficient metal-free electrocatalyst of nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanoflowers toward oxygen electroreduction

Abstract

Metal-free catalysts offer a desirable alternative to traditional metal-based catalysts. However, it remains challenging to improve the catalytic performance of metal-free catalysts to be as promising as that of metal-based materials. Herein, a polymer-assisted method followed by pyrolysis treatment was employed to synthesize nitrogen (N)-doped porous carbon nanoflowers with nanosheet subunits. Leveraging the unique geometry structure and abundant pyridinic-N active sites, the optimized catalyst exhibits a good half-wave potential of 0.85 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (vs. RHE) and long-term stability with only 17.0 mV negative shift of the half-wave potential after 10 000 cyclic voltammetry cycles in alkaline electrolyte. This research presents a viable strategy for advancing metal-free catalysts.

Graphical abstract: A highly efficient metal-free electrocatalyst of nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanoflowers toward oxygen electroreduction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 Oct 2024
Accepted
09 Dec 2024
First published
10 Dec 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2025,13, 2650-2657

A highly efficient metal-free electrocatalyst of nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanoflowers toward oxygen electroreduction

X. Fan, Y. Zhang, L. Fan, Q. Geng, W. Zhu, E. Doustkhah and C. Li, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2025, 13, 2650 DOI: 10.1039/D4TA07178F

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